Date of Graduation
5-2018
Document Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Master of Science in Cell & Molecular Biology (MS)
Degree Level
Graduate
Department
Cell & Molecular Biology
Advisor/Mentor
Alverson, Andrew J.
Committee Member
Lewis, Jeffrey A.
Second Committee Member
Pereira, Andy
Keywords
Carbon; Diatoms; Evolution; Nitzschia; Nonphotosynthetic
Abstract
Diatoms are prolific photosynthesizers responsible for some 20% of global primary production. In real terms, the oxygen in one of every five breaths traces back to photosynthesis by marine diatoms. Among the tens of thousands of diatom species, a small handful of colorless diatom species in the genus Nitzschia have lost photosynthesis altogether and rely exclusively on extracellular organic carbon for growth. I used DNA sequence data to reconstruct the phylogeny of this group, and found that nonphotosynthetic diatoms are monophyletic, indicating that photosynthesis was lost just one time over the course of some 200 million years of diatom evolution. Carbon metabolism in nonphotosynthetic diatoms, including the exact source of carbon used by these species, has not been fully characterized. We sequenced the nuclear genome of one species and used it to develop a comprehensive model of central carbon metabolism. Preliminary analysis of Nitzschia metabolism showed that it generally matches to the pattern of previously reported diatom metabolic networks. As well we found some hints regarding Nitzschia external carbon acquisition which possibly can help to explain its heterotrophic mode of life. Overall, this study has provided novel insights into the evolutionary origin and metabolism of non-photosynthetic diatoms, which are unique among diatoms in their ability to sustain their growth solely from extracellular carbon.
Citation
Onyshchenko, A. (2018). Phylogeny and Evolutionary Genomics of Non-Photosynthetic Diatoms. Graduate Theses and Dissertations Retrieved from https://scholarworks.uark.edu/etd/2695
